.top Pre-Register Domain - .top Domain Information

Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

The information gathered in response to Question 18 is intended to inform the postlaunch review of the New gTLD Program, from the perspective of assessing the relative costs and benefits achieved in the expanded gTLD space.

For the application to be considered complete, answers to this section must be fulsome and sufficiently quantitative and detailed to inform future study on plans vs. results.

The New gTLD Program will be reviewed, as specified in section 9.3 of the Affirmation of Commitments. This will include consideration of the extent to which the introduction or expansion of gTLDs has promoted competition, consumer trust and consumer choice, as well as effectiveness of
(a) the application and evaluation process, and (b) safeguards put in place to mitigate issues involved in the introduction or expansion.

The information gathered in this section will be one source of input to help inform this review. This information is not used as part of the evaluation or scoring of the application, except to the extent that the information may overlap with questions or evaluation areas that are scored.

An applicant wishing to designate this application as community-based should ensure that these responses are consistent with its responses for question 20 below.


Jiangsu Bang Ning Technology Co., Ltd ("the Applicant") was founded in 2008 with the mission of providing high technology Internet solutions and value added services for the governments, companies and individual customers.

Currently, it is at the forefront of data storage and product development with respect to the Cloud services. By the end of 2011, its cloud data storage technology quality is ranged number 1 in the Eastern China district, number 4 in China and has progressively expanded internationally.

As of 2010, the Applicant's revenue is RMB 10,260,592 on 22% gross margin. The Applicant has about 10 patents granted and has 20 patent pending expected to be granted in the next 2 years. Registrar service is one of the Applicant's core business, with it operating the website www.bizxun.com and www.55hl.com. The Applicant obtained ICANN accreditation, and received award from CNNIC as the Golden Registrar.

The Applicant is applying for the top level domain name ".top". For ease of reading, "top" will be referred to as "STRING" in the remaining part of this application.

The vision for ".STRING" is to be connected namespace for all companies and individuals that want to attract and serve selective groups of the Chinese internet population and help promote innovation, participation and collaboration among them.
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To the Chinese user, "top" with its literal meaning is synonymous to the Chinese characters "排行榜" (which means "ranking" in English). It is used commonly in daily conversations when discussing about ranking of things like industries, entertainment and cities etc. The average Chinese user has a craze for rankings and competitions and one can almost find a reason to compete and rank for any type of thing or phenomenon. Each quarter or year, various rankings will be released to commemorate the best players in various industry sectors.

For example, Baidu, the most popular search engine in China, via the link http://top.baidu.com , displays the various rankings that it tracks. In total, there are about 90+ different categories. Sina online, the most popular online portal in China also uses a similar named link http://top.sina.com.cn to rank online games. Tudou.com, one of the leading online video sharing website, ranks it most popular videos via the link http://www.tudou.com/top.

".STRING" objective is to make it easier for the Chinese Internet population to access and use the Internet to brand themselves and be associated with a premium domain name, Using the proposed ".STRING", registrants would be privileged to using a ".TOP" domain name for the purpose of promotion and outreach.

Another objective for ".STRING" is to add variety to the current available offering of TLDs. ".STRING" is meant to serve the Chinese Internet population as just how ".com" is serving the English Internet population. Having a specific target audience in mind also helps individuals, companies and organizations that want to service this group to better able tailor their services and products. Even returns on marketing will be higher due to the presence of such a useful ".STRING" gTLD.

On a global scale, the introduction of ".STRING" gTLD allows any Chinese Internet user (not just limited to China) to have an online identity that he/she can be more familiar and can associate with. It also helps to promote Chinese culture to the rest of the non-Chinese Internet population.

".STRING" is meant to target a niche market, with a value proposition similar to those smaller TLDs, branding with high price. As the average Chinese user has a craze for rankings, it is naturally to expect these users to also crave for the opportunity to brand themselves with ".STRING", either individually or as a company decision. As such, the initial target audience will be the top 100 players of each industry in China, as these players can realize the value proposition of ".STRING".

The Applicant's conservative expectation for a high price ".STRING" for the first three years is that, it will initially reach about 4,900 in the 1st year, and grow to 7,420 and 9,800 in the 2nd and 3rd year respectively.

The projection is based on a conservative estimate taking the following into consideration:
* the total number of domain names registered in China across all TLDs
* the proportion of the total number of domain names registered in China that are in Chinese
* ICANN new gTLD study (ICANN benchmarking of registry operations, Feb. 2010)
* the pricing point for ".STRING" and how the China market would react based on the team's experience in China
* the initial growth of existing gTLDs in China

The pricing for ".STRING" is intentionally set at higher price point to other generic TLDs as the Applicant envisions ".STRING" to be widely adopted as the generic TLD of choice for a selective group of the Chinese Internet community.

The Applicant will have Sunrise process prior to opening the general registration to ensure that the relevant rights owners have their first rights to their names. Landrush period will also introduced to cater for the ardent aspirant registrants. The Applicant will also adopt the Trademark Clearing House to reduce cybersquatting and other intellectual property rights infringements. Furthermore, the Applicant will have additional protection for geographic names. Details of these protections are described in the answer to Question 22, 28 and 29.

18 (b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others? What is the goal of your proposed TLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

As mentioned in Question 18(a), the applied-for ".STRING", with its literal meaning "TOP" will be used as a specialized space for ranking and publicizing purposes. Chinese society has a rage for competitions and rankings. Each year, each industry would like to produce a top list to commemorate the best players in the industry. And the rankings in turn will boost the performance of the players. Using the proposed ".STRING", registrants would be privileged to using a ".TOP" domain name for the purpose of promotion and outreach.

In line with its specialty, the Applicant has selected KNET as the back-end service provider due to its business and technical expertise in the Chinese domain name registry industry.

The KNET Shared Registry Platform ("KSRP") is designed, implemented and operated to provide high availability, secure, robust and scalable registry services. KSRP shall fully conform to, and exceed the Registry Performance Specifications (Specification 10 of the gTLD Registry Agreement).

When it comes to the reputation of the ".STRING" TLD, the Applicant would strive to make the ".STRING" domain names as a premium space reserved for top-listed players.

What do you anticipate your proposed TLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

Competition:
The proposed TLD will add up variety and competition to the current space. Adding up ".STRING" and hundreds of new TLDs in this virtually unlimited space will give consumers more choices to label their distinct identity or multiple identities on the Internet. Furthermore, adding up more generic TLDs will greatly stimulate the competition in this market. The registrants and Internet users enjoy better services with more favorable price. Internet users, registrant will be able to compare ".STRING" TLD with other generic TLDs in terms of retail price, registry services and reputations to pick up its preferred TLD.

Differentiation:
How to survive in this competitive environment? The key lies in differentiation and innovation. The ".STRING" will form a specialized area to attract interested registrants. This differentiated service will give registrants, Internet users and others more choices when it comes to choosing an appropriate domain name to meet their specific demands.

What goals your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

The Applicant believes that ".STRING" as a gTLD will achieve the following goal in terms of user experience:

A specialized space for rankings
The ".STRING", with its literal meaning "TOP" will be used as a specialized space for ranking and other competition purposes. By using the proposed ".STRING", registrants would be privileged to using a ".TOP" domain name for the purpose of promotion and outreach. Internet users accordingly, would know the domain names indicating the top players, hence can have a trust when visiting the domain names.

Trust and Secure:
When interacting with ".STRING" domain names, Internet users will be sure that the registered domain names are managed by the top players thus is trustworthy. Naturally Internet users will also have faith in the services using the ".STRING" domain names.

Provide a complete description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

In summary, the registration policy for ".STRING" TLD will be designed as such to reflect the mission and purpose of this specialized domain:

Registrant eligibility Requirement

".STRING" can be registered by prospective registrant who is listed on the official ranking list of the industry or who is the producer or publisher of a ranking list.

String Policy

Domain names can contain the English-language letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9 and hyphens (LDH -- Letters, Digits, Hyphens).

　　a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -

Hyphens however cannot be used for the first or last character of the second level domain name. Spaces and special characters (such as !, $, &, é, and so on) are not currently acceptable. The maximum number of LDH characters accepted for a second level domain is 63.

Furthermore, Chinese IDN characters are also allowed to register at the sub-level. Please refer to answer to Question 44 for the applicable IDN characters and its registration policies.

WHOIS Policy

".STRING" shall operate as a ʺthickʺ registry, in which all of the information associated with registered entities, including both technical information and social information is stored within a central registry repository.

The Applicant shall abide with any relevant ICANN WHOIS Policy.

Others

* UDRP and URS as described in the answer to Question 29
* Sunrise and Landrush process as describe in the answer to Question 29
* Geographic name restriction as described in answer to Question 22
* Trademark protection as describe in answer to Question 29
* Domain Name Lifecycle as describe in answer to Question 27
* Data Privacy as describe in Question 18(c) below
* Reserved and Blacklist label as describe in the answer to Question 22 and 29

Will your proposed TLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

The Applicant will adopt appropriate policies to protect the privacy of registrants and its domain name users in line with the policies by ICANN as well as the privacy regulation of China which the Applicant is incorporated.

As such policy and regulation may be modified in the future; the Applicant will also amend its privacy policy accordingly.

Specifically, The Applicant is subjected to China's《信息安全技术个人信息保护指南》("Information Security Technology -- Guide of Personal Information Protection"). In brief, the Applicant shall inform the registrants at the Registration Agreement that
* The purpose of any personal information collected and scope of use
* The period in which these personal information will be stored
* The security measure and information protection policy to safeguard the personal information
* The rights of the registrants on the personal information
* The registrant responsibility for accuracy of the personal information


In general, the Applicant stipulates how the personal information will be collected and used and how the WHOIS information will be displayed. Any information other than the WHOIS shall not be collected and used. No personal information will be collected without the consent of the registrants and the registrants shall have the Rights to Confidential, Rights to Knowledge, Rights to Opt-out/Change Data/Prohibit Use.

The information submitted by the registrants shall be regarded as classified information and shall be processed by specially designated personnel. Without the written consent of registrants, the information collected cannot be used in the way other than WHOIS purpose.

The back-end service provider shall deploy security measures to protect the integrity of the database against potential stealth or unintended leakage. Please refer to the answer to Question 30 for more information in this regard.

Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communication will help to achieve your projected benefits.

During the application, the Applicant will reach out to the registrars serving the Chinese community (particularly in China) to seek their support. There are only small numbers of ICANN accredited registrars in the region and the Applicant will have private meetings with these registrars. Additionally, the Applicant will also seek out other domain name resellers and encourage them to become ICANN accredited registrars so as to be eligible to participate in the launch of ".STRING".

Prior to the successful application of ".STRING", the Applicant shall begin early communication via press releases and media interviews within the Chinese media to ensure companies and individuals would be well-informed of the pending launch of ".STRING". The Applicant may take pre-registration to gauge the demand but will not accept any advance payment.

After the Applicant has signed the registry agreement with ICANN, the Applicant will embark on a 30 days targeted Sunrise campaign to ensure companies and trademark owners participate in the ".STRING" Sunrise. The Applicant shall provide a code of conduct to its marketing partners to prevent any spam abuse or misrepresentation of ".STRING" sunrise.

Following the ".STRING" sunrise, the Applicant shall organize a Landrush ceremony in China and/or Hong Kong, inviting partners (e.g. registrars) as well as media representatives. The Applicant will also begin the extensive marketing, including online and offline advertising. The Landrush marketing effort will also last another 60 days.

After the launch of ".STRING", the Applicant, from time to time, will embark on marketing and communication campaign to promote the utilization and adoption of ".STRING". The Applicant will also actively seek out ingenious usage of ".STRING" and to work with them to promote the awareness and positive use of ".STRING".

18 (c) What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences/costs imposed upon consumers?

".STRING" is meant to be target the mass Chinese Internet community. As such, the Applicant will adopt commonly adopted policy and practices as so far as possible such that the community has more familiarity and less learning curve.

".STRING" will have Sunrise and Landrush processes prior to opening the general registration to ensure the relevant rights owners have their first rights to their names. The Applicant will also adopt the Trademark Clearing House to reduce cybersquatting. Furthermore, the Applicant will have additional protection for geographic names. Details of these protections are described in the answer to Question 29.

How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come/first serve basis?

The Applicant will seek to adopt commonly adopted practices in the handling of multiple application of a particular domain name.

* During Landrush period, multiple eligible applications for a particular domain name will be resolved using auction. The Applicant may engage a third party domain name auction partner to conduct the auction process.
* After Landrush period, multiple eligible applications for a particular domain name will be handled on a first-come first-served policy.
* If there are any disputes, it will be resolved according to the principles of UDRP.

Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).

The Applicant intends to implement promotion discounts and bulk registration discounts for the registrars and registrants. Depending on the market condition and competitions, the Applicant may offer deep discount or even free registrations. These discounts will be implemented to match the respective marketing and promotion campaign.

The pricing policy for ".STRING" and its promotion or bulk discounts will be clearly published on the Applicant's website. The pricing policy will be offered to all ICANN accredited registrars. The Applicant will not engage in preferential discounts.

Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for period of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.

The Applicant will make contractual commitments to the Registrars that the wholesale price increase would not be more than 10% per annum to offset the increase in operation cost. The Applicant further makes commitment that affected registrars will have at least 6 months advance notice of any pending price adjustment.

If the Applicant intends to make a significant price increase (more than 10% per annum) for sustainability and continuity, the Applicant will make its case for ICANN review. The Applicant will cooperate with ICANN with any public consultation process. The Applicant is aware that ICANN may or may not grant such significant price adjustment on its own discrete.

The Applicant will offer optional multi-year registrations, for up to ten years. Any registrants who make advance payment for multi-year registrations will not be affected by any price adjustment during the period they had made advance payment for.

To minimize any potential abuse of geographic names and to mitigate confusion and dispute, the Applicant would reserve geographic names under ".STRING".

22.1 The reservation list

22.1.1 Reserved list specific to Application Guidebook

As per the Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, the Applicant shall put the following geographic names on reservation. The reserved geographic names are:

Country and Territory Names. The country and territory names contained in the following internationally recognized lists shall be initially reserved at the second level and at all other levels within the TLD at which the Registry Operator provides for registrations:
* the short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union 〈http://www.iso.org/iso/support/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists/iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm#EU〉;
* the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and
* the list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names;

Regional or Continental Names. The names are listed as a UNESCO region on the UNESCO website (see http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/worldwide/) or appearing on the "composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings" (see http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm).

22.1.2 Reserved list specific to China

In addition to the reserved list in the Application Guidebook, the Applicant may also reserve additional names as required by China regulations where the Applicant operates. The names lists includes but not limited to:
* The names (both in English and in Chinese) of the provinces and municipalities of China, including complete form and short form as well as unofficial abbreviation of the geographic names.
* The names (both in English and in Chinese) of the sub-regions of the provinces and the names of the counties in China.

22.2. Procedures to release the reserved lists specific to Application Guidebook

The reserved geographic names may be released to the extent that the Applicant reaches agreement with the applicable government or public authority. The release of the geographic names shall follow the below described procedures.

22.2.1 The release of country and territory names

1. The Government or public authority concerned informs the GAC Secretariat of their request to register the name, and the designated beneficiary.
2. The GAC Secretariat authenticates the request and transfers it to the ICANN staff and to the Applicant.
3. The Applicant verifies the availability of the name and issues an authorization letter that is transmitted directly to the designated.
4. The designated beneficiary registers the name, with an accredited registrar, using the authorization letter as their authority.

22.2.2 The release of reserved list specific to China

1. The relevant local government or public authority issues an official supporting documentation to the designated beneficiary.
2. The designated beneficiary registers the name, with an accredited registrar using the official supporting documentation.